Pandora left shortly after, taking Amelie with her. Amelie would visit her former sisters of the Nature Pantheon before proceeding to the Light Empire battlefield as Haru had ordered.
Pandora would return to the Light Empire, inform Asher that the negotiation had failed, and as promised, position herself in the Imperial Capital to fulfill the letter of her commitment.
She had no real attachment to the Light Empire's fate. Its people had long since stopped believing in her. Her temples there were destroyed and her name absent from the empire's faith entirely. Some of the senior ministers of the Light Empire had once even been her followers before abandoning faith for the pursuit of truth. They had destroyed what she had left behind without a backward glance.
Therefore she had only come for the Banner and now that she had it, everything after was a mere performance.
…
Angel City, meanwhile, was quiet. Celestia was in retreat. The Angels, Elves, Dragons, and Golden Beamon were all at the distant battlefield. Haru had wanted to wander around until Celestia ascended, but noticed that there was genuinely nowhere else to go. Even the underground Grey Dwarf City wasn't an option, because Lily had been taken by Svetlana to the 'End' to inherit the position of the Endless Continent's 'Goddess of Fate'. Even her territory was gone with her.
The Holy Demons were somewhere in the Core Area, presumably in retreat, trying to strengthen themselves as much as possible before the Divine War began. Haru had no particular desire to find them, they were spectacularly ugly and he had nothing to say to them anyway.
He was settling in, deciding to go into retreat himself, when a familiar aura descended over the capital.
He opened a hole in the barrier to allow entry to the Elven Goddess Elunara, who walked through it and looked at him with a smile that contained a small apology for being late.
"Amelie left not long ago." Haru said, anticipating the question, "I can recall her if you'd like."
"That's not necessary, I'll find her myself. I actually came to speak with Your Majesty."
"Oh?"
"Thank you." Elunara said. Then she told him, about the four sisters, about the history she and Amelie had shared building the Nature Pantheon together, the roles they had each played, the relationship that had made Amelie's absence across a hundred thousands years into something that never quite healed.
She spoke without rushing, and Haru could hear in her tone that this was genuine, not diplomatic, not transactional. Real.
When she finished, she bowed her head.
"Your Majesty's kindness, the Nature Pantheon will not forget it."
Haru said, "I won't pretend there wasn't selfishness involved. The reborn Amelie is now my believer. She belongs to the Great Aetherium. If I can gain a Supreme Goddess as a subordinate, why wouldn't I? The gratitude is appreciated, but the exchange suited me well enough."
Elunara looked at him for a moment, then smiled. The kind that meant she had expected exactly this answer and found it more reassuring than false modesty would have been.
"Even so." She said, "The Nature Pantheon will not forget it."
…
Haru accepted Elunara's gratitude without further deflection. She had bowed sincerely and he wasn't going to refuse that, but he had also already noticed there was no gift coming, and didn't expect one. The Nature Pantheon was genuinely poor. Svetlana herself, an ancient Supreme Goddess, had been unable to produce a hundred thousand Divine Crystals when Haru had once asked.
Svetlana had given everything to the Nature Pantheon to heal the wounds left by the Ancient Era's Divine War against the Dimensional Demons. Elunara was in the same position. Haru was even quietly relieved she hadn't asked to borrow anything.
When he told her that Sylvia had been dormant but conscious for the full hundred thousand years, awake in nothingness, cultivating alone, Elunara's expression changed.
She didn't speak for a moment. The excitement she had felt about Sylvia's ascension drained away and was replaced by something that looked like it hurt.
"I should have stayed." She said, "I was prepared to. Sylvia stopped me. She said the Nature Pantheon could exist without her, but not without me…"
She took a pause, "I've never stopped thinking about that."
Her eyes reddened slightly, something Haru suspected the Peak Supreme Goddess almost never allowed in front of others. He let it sit.
"The past is over." He said, "Sylvia has a new life now. Don't carry this."
Elunara composed herself with a small wry smile, "You're right. I lost my composure."
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